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BTH Group: Members. Posts: 179 Joined: Dec. 2005 Posted: Feb. 29 2008, 10:03 I want to get the ball rolling as there's bound to be some magazine and newspaper coverage of the new record in the coming weeks. All i've found so far is the blurb on Amazon - but I must say it's a very positive and accurate summation in my opinion: Product Description Mike Oldfield has always been famed for his unconventional approach to music. Throughout his career he has consistently broken musical boundaries, and with Music of the Spheres he continues to do so. Taking influences from Holst and Rachmaninov as much as Steve Reich or William Orbit, this piece is classical in nature, but yet is also immediately identifiable as classic Mike Oldfield. Using a full concert orchestra and choir, and with solo parts from Mike himself on guitar, legendary soprano Hayley Westenra and renowned pianist Lang Lang, this is a work with huge emotional and musical scope. The title of the piece is a reference to something that Mike feels strongly: that all music should aim to represent the spriritual, or otherworldly elements of life: something beyond the mundane and everyday. In this he has clearly succeeded. Music of the Spheres is by turns epic, tender, mournful and triumphant. It is the work of a composer who above all can make beautiful and substantial music, regardless of genre or instrumentation. I know that Amazon are hardly going to give a negative review - they are trying to sell CD's after all. However this seems to be quite heartfelt! More of this from the papers and big websites and Mike's definitely onto a winner... Roll on St. Paddy's Day!! -------------- Tá mé an amadán ag cheoil... Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: Feb. 29 2008, 12:33 There's a review in the current (April) issue of Classic FM Magazine. It's a bit lukewarm - 3 out of 5 stars (Simon Rattle's new interpretation of Mahler's 9th Symphony gets the same score, so feel free to argue about what the heck such a rating system can possibly mean) - and I'm not impressed by the review itself, which says very little about the actual music. I wonder how much listening was really done? It's mostly a rehash of the publicity blurb. The only real critical comment refers to MO's explanation that this is what the 'inner music' of the planets and stars 'would sound like if it was set free'. The critic says this is 'a grandiose claim - would the universe really sound like a blend of Tubular Bells and a Hollywood love story? - but there's no denying the work's luscious, mood-capturing power.' I'll be a lot more interested in what they say in the next issue of Gramophone. Back to top

Korgscrew Group: Super Admins Posts: 3511 Joined: Dec. 1999 Posted: Feb. 29 2008, 12:49 Quote (Alan D @ Feb. 29 2008, 17:33) The critic says this is 'a grandiose claim - would the universe really sound like a blend of Tubular Bells and a Hollywood love story? - but there's no denying the work's luscious, mood-capturing power.' I have to say I've found myself asking the same question - not so much the Hollywood love story bit, but certainly about Tubular Bells. I can't say the music feels particularly celestial to me...but if Mike really feels that the universe would sound like that, I can't really argue! David Bedford made an attempt at the music of the spheres concept when he did 'The City and the Stars' a good few years ago. He based a lot of the harmonies on "Kepler's Chord", which has notes calculated from the angular velocities of the planets of the solar system. I remember it having a very eery, otherworldly sound, which may have biased me - my idea of what the music of the spheres might sound like would be much closer to that. Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: Feb. 29 2008, 16:12 Quote (Korgscrew @ Feb. 29 2008, 17:49) David Bedford made an attempt at the music of the spheres concept ... he based a lot of the harmonies on "Kepler's Chord", which has notes calculated from the angular velocities of the planets of the solar system. I remember it having a very eery, otherworldly sound, which may have biased me - my idea of what the music of the spheres might sound like would be much closer to that. Yes, me too. MO hasn't said anything anywhere about using Kepler's stuff as far as I know - has he? But certainly that's where the idea of planets and mathematics would take you, if you really followed it through. I suspect the whole thing is more personal for Mike - very much his take on where he imagines his music coming from, rather than some actual mathematical relationships like Kepler's. Incidentally, the same issue of Classic FM reviews Jon Lord's Durham Concerto. There's a bit more of a shot at describing the music than in the MOTS review, though it strikes me as another milk-and-watery affair, really. You wouldn't think, from reading its bland assertion ('a very agreeable composition' ), that the music was powerful enough to evoke tears in places. Score: three out of five again. And guess what: same reviewer! Back to top

Tati The Sentinel Group: Members Posts: 3360 Joined: Feb. 2002 Posted: Feb. 29 2008, 16:13 Quote (Alan D @ Feb. 29 2008, 14:33) There's a review in the current (April) issue of Classic FM Magazine. It's a bit lukewarm - 3 out of 5 stars (Simon Rattle's new interpretation of Mahler's 9th Symphony gets the same score, so feel free to argue about what the heck such a rating system can possibly mean) - and I'm not impressed by the review itself, which says very little about the actual music. I wonder how much listening was really done? It's mostly a rehash of the publicity blurb. The only real critical comment refers to MO's explanation that this is what the 'inner music' of the planets and stars 'would sound like if it was set free'. The critic says this is 'a grandiose claim - would the universe really sound like a blend of Tubular Bells and a Hollywood love story? - but there's no denying the work's luscious, mood-capturing power.' I'll be a lot more interested in what they say in the next issue of Gramophone. I was expecting something worse from them...but it wasn't so bad.Let's see Gramophone magazine. -------------- "But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014 "I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011 Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Mar. 03 2008, 01:45 That "summation" from Amazon.com was copied from somewhere else. I haven't even been on there recently, much less looking specifically for MOTS. But I swear I read that verbatim somewhere else within the last 2 weeks. But where..........somebody help me out...... -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Mar. 03 2008, 07:14 Quote (Scatterplot @ Mar. 03 2008, 01:45) That "summation" from Amazon.com was copied from somewhere else. I haven't even been on there recently, much less looking specifically for MOTS. But I swear I read that verbatim somewhere else within the last 2 weeks. But where..........somebody help me out...... It`s very similar to what the classics and jazz website has up   Apologies if this has been linked already.There`s a few more interesting quotes if you click onto the biography tab.. http://www.classicsandjazz.co.uk/tssite....1402037 Back to top

Tati The Sentinel Group: Members Posts: 3360 Joined: Feb. 2002 Posted: Mar. 20 2008, 16:07 A nice review here: http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=3963 -------------- "But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014 "I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011 Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: April 06 2008, 16:26 I'm puzzled by the lack of a review in Gramophone magazine. They reviewed Jon Lord's Durham Concerto very fairly in the April issue, but not Music of the Spheres. I expected a review in the May issue (which appeared a few days ago), but no. It's not even been listed as a new release. Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: April 20 2008, 17:02 A few online links here that may or may not have been posted already(apologies if they have)The "prog archive" review seems to offer a view of positive indifference I suppose(if such a thing exists)Some good points raised in the piece though I feel. Prog Archives Review A much kinder and positive piece below from "Indie London"Including this nice little paragraph below... "In this he has clearly succeeded. Music of the Spheres is by turns epic, tender, mournful and triumphant. It is the work of a composer who above all can make beautiful and substantial music, regardless of genre or instrumentation." Indie London Review And finally a couple of slightly less generous opinions from both The Times and The BBC sites... Times Review BBC Review Back to top

Sir Mustapha Group: Musicians Posts: 2802 Joined: April 2003 Posted: April 20 2008, 17:43 I gave up reading the Prog Reviews page when I read this: Quote I have such respect for this colossal wizard who did so much to bring prog into the mainstream and who, rightly or wrongly, kept the faint glow alight when music was patrolling the abyss of artistic morass. "Whine whine whine I'm stuck in the seventies whine whine" -------------- Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds. Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: April 20 2008, 17:56 ..."And now..LIVE!..From the abyss of artistic morass..IT`S Top Of The Pops!!" The review gets a little better after that I thought..Although maybe that`s because once he took me into that whole abyss thing I psychologicaly had nowhere left to go but upwards..Fiendishly devious some of these reviewer dudes. Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: April 21 2008, 03:19 Quote (Dirk Star @ April 20 2008, 21:02) a couple of slightly less generous opinions from both The Times and The BBC sites... Times Review BBC Review Good review-writing draws attention to the work under discussion (whether good or bad). Bad review-writing draws attention to the reviewer instead. That Times review is tiresomely of the latter category. The subtext seems to me to be: 'This may look like a review, but I recommend you ignore the music that I appear to be talking about and instead observe how cleverly, snappily, and with what cutting, tongue-in-cheek detachment I can express myself'. Why would anyone pay attention to such a closed, inward-looking and self-satisfied opinion? Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: May 03 2008, 16:10 The June issue of Gramophone is out - and still no review of Music of the Spheres. Looks to me as if there isn't going to be one. I wonder why? Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: June 05 2008, 06:33 And now another month later - no review in Gramophone this issue either. I think that must surely mean they're not going to run it. Interestingly, there's a favourable review of Jon Lord's new CD (hot on the heels of the Durham Concerto) which mentions that 'the two works we have here are not some rock star's whim of '"going classical" with a host of others to do the nuts and bolts for him'. I found myself wondering if that might have something to do with why they may not have taken MOTS seriously (in view of the Jenkins involvement), although ... well, no matter how the final result is arrived at, it would still be a piece of music, still be reviewable, one would think, even if the authorship issue seemed cloudy to them. Particularly when it's one that has been lodged high in the classical chart, now, for some time. Very odd. Back to top

The Caveman Group: Members Posts: 2178 Joined: Jan. 2008 Posted: June 05 2008, 08:36 I suspect a certain snobbishnes here.Personally i love the album (i must be one of the "sweet toothed" people mentioned in Times review as i prefer too listen to it in it's entitiy)but i think the problem may be that it's so different.Sometimes when people who are primarily recognised in the Rock/Pop field 'do a classical' it's actually not that good and more of a novelty.MOTS however is a new area for Oldfieild in that,although he has used orchestra before,it isn't as a base for his electric guitar.Incantations part 1 springs instantly to mind.This is wholly orchestral.There-in lies the rub as i think that certain critics will see it and think of it as a kind of vanity exercise,a kind of "Look i can do classical too" and dismiss it without even listening. Sod Gramaphone then!They don't know what they're missing.This is IMHO THE best thing Mike's done in years. -------------- THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH. Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: June 05 2008, 09:57 Quote (The Caveman @ June 05 2008, 13:36) I suspect a certain snobbishnes here. I'm not so sure. I don't find Gramophone a snooty magazine at all (I wouldn't read it if I did) - just very helpful. They do have a pretty specialised audience to cater for (not the same audience as Classic FM Magazine, but overlapping to a degree, I guess) but they don't seem to put on airs. And if there was that kind of snobbishness at the root of it, I'd have expected Jon Lord's stuff to be ignored too, but far from that - they've given him good reviews. I can only think of two vaguely plausible reasons for the omission of MOTS, myself: 1. They felt uneasy about the extent to which MO can be thought of as the composer (as hinted at above). Or 2. They thought it wasn't very good and decided NOT to publish a review, rather than publish a bad one, knowing that it would probably do very well anyway. But neither of these seems very convincing. I don't believe the 'snobbery' theory, myself, and that's really why I go on being puzzled. Maybe I'll stir myself to write and ask them! Back to top

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